Website of the Week: Webby Award winners announced

The winning websites and digital campaigns in this year’s Webby Awards – dubbed the “Oscars for the Internet” – were announced last night.

Sadly, none of the 11 Australian-produced websites that were shortlisted (including Tourism Australia’s australia.com, Wanted Digital’s 12 Canoes, Moshcam, Commsec’s iPhone application and Anthill favourite, RedBubble.com) took out top honours in their categories.

The Webby Awards rock. This year they attracted nearly 10,000 entries from more than 60 countries. Official category winners are determined by the 650-person International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, including David Bowie, Arianna Huffington, Matt Groening, Vinton Cerf, and Richard Branson. The public also gets to vote for a “People’s Voice” winner in each category.

It’s a little odd that the winners are announced over a month ahead of the official gala ceremony in New York City on 8 June, but I suppose this helps with logistics. And, while winning (and presumably losing) means a lot to entrants, the gala celebration is a refreshingly wry affair. Each award acceptance speech can be no longer than five words, which has become something of a contest within the contest. Last year, satirist Stephen Colbert accepted his special achievement award with: “Me. Me. Me. Me. Me.”

Paul Ryan joined Australian Anthill Magazine as a features writer in May 2004 and was appointed Editor soon after.
He has written scores of feature articles for Anthill Magazine, on diverse issues including digital media, innovation, venture capital, export, intellectual property, technology commercialisation and online strategy. During this time he has interviewed scores of prominent people, including Andrew Denton, Don Watson, Sabeer Bhatia (founder of Hotmail) and Sir Martin Evans (father of stem cell research).
Paul presides over the development of Anthill’s web presence.
He also blogs at http://1000shards.com.
Follow him on Twitter: @PaulDRyan.